At the Senate Estimates committee hearing, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Chair Neridah O’Loughlin was grilled by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young over reported inaction in relation to Kyle and Jackie O’s language on their KIIS FM breakfast show.
Equipped with print-outs of comments made by the pair on their breakfast show in September, Senator Hanson-Young made it perfectly clear that she was “certainly not” a listener of the program. “These are just a handful… Ms O’Loughlin, I want you to look at this and tell me whether you think you would be able to read it out to us”.
The comments Senator Hanson Young summarised allegedly include vulgar homophobic, racist and sexist ‘jokes’.
“There are jokes about people being gay; jokes about one of the producer’s Asian housemates; jokes about dating men who are not white; jokes about the sexual and racial profiles of journalists from other stations; and divisive and violent language about women and sex. It goes into vulgar detail about sex acts. There are comments on air that refer to fellow hosts as being ‘an annoying bitch’ and ‘ho’,” she explained.
“There are jokes about overweight women and mental health. Of course, the final point is about a competition where they got female staff to record themselves urinating and then the boys had to figure out whose bits were contributing to that urine. It is vulgar. It is not just vulgar; it is disgusting. It is belittling of women. It is misogynistic, racist, sexist and off”.
O’Laughlin told the Senator she would prefer not to read out the comments because she didn’t think “they were appropriate for parliamentary language.”
This, of course, served Senator Hanson-Young’s purpose almost poetically.
“You would prefer not to read them out. That is understandable. I don’t imagine there are many children watching this Senate estimates. I assume the audience that watches this Senate estimates session is far smaller than those who listen to the Kyle and Jackie O Show. I understand why you don’t want to read these comments out. They are vulgar, aren’t they?”
O’Laughlin chose not to comment on the transcripts saying that under the co-regulatory framework, complains must be dealt with by the broadcaster in question prior to being investigated by ACMA.
When asked if the comments provided would fall “foul of the code’s decency standards,” O’Laughlin replied that “it would be unreasonable for us to give you an opinion at the table.”
According to the Commercial Radio Codes of Practice, programs must not offend the generally accepted standards of decency while having regard for the demographic characteristics of the audience. Licensees are also expected not to broadcast a feature Program that has an explicit sexual theme as its core component unless it is broadcast between 7.00 pm and 6.00 am, and an appropriate warning is made before the commencement of the Program and at hourly intervals during the broadcast of the Program.
